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Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey Fowler KBE (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor, producer and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He has often times portrayed villains, such as Verbal Kint in the Usual Suspects (1995) (for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Hopper in Disney/Pixar's 1998 film, A Bug's Life, and Lex Luthor in Superman Returns (2006). History Early Life Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey, to Kathleen Ann (née Knutson), a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, a technical writer and data consultant.23 He has an older brother, Randy Fowler, who is a limousine driver and Rod Stewart impersonator in Boise, Idaho, and a sister, Julie Ann Fowler Keir, an office worker.45 His family relocated to southern California when Spacey was four years old.6Randy Fowler (from whom Spacey is estranged)7 has stated that their father, whom he described as a racist "Nazi supporter", was sexually and physically abusive, and that Spacey had shut down emotionally and become "very sly and smart" to avoid whippings.8 Spacey attended Northridge Military Academy, Canoga Park High School in the 10th and 11th grades. He graduated co-valedictorian (along with Mare Winningham) of the class of 1977 of Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, California.91011 At Chatsworth, Spacey starred in the school's senior production of The Sound of Music, playing the part of Captain Georg von Trapp with Winningham as Maria von Trapp. He started using his middle name "Spacey", which is also his paternal grandmother's maiden name.312 Spacey had tried to succeed as a comedian for several years before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, as a member of Group 12, where he studied drama with teacher Marian Seldes13 between 1979 and 1981. During this time period, he performed stand-up comedy in bowling alley talent contests.14 Career 1981–1999 Spacey's first professional stage appearance was as a spear carrier in a New York Shakespeare Festival performance of Henry VI, Part 1 in 1981.15 The following year, he made his first Broadway appearance, as Oswald in a production of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, starring Liv Ullmann. Then he portrayed Philinte in Molière's The Misanthrope. In 1984, he appeared in a production of David Rabe's Hurlyburly, in which he rotated through each of the male parts (he would later play Mickey in the film version). Next came Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. In 1986, he appeared in a production of Sleuth in a New Jersey dinner theatre.16 His prominence as a stage actor began in 1986, when he was cast opposite Jack Lemmon, Peter Gallagher and Bethel Leslie as Jamie, the eldest Tyrone son, in Jonathan Miller's lauded production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. Lemmon in particular would become a mentor to him17 and was invited, along with Spacey's high school drama teacher, to be present when Spacey received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999.18 He made his first major television appearance in the second-season premiere of Crime Story, playing a Kennedy-esque American senator. Although his interest soon turned to film, Spacey remained actively involved in the live theater community. In 1991, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Uncle Louie in Neil Simon's Broadway hit Lost in Yonkers. Spacey's father was unconvinced that Spacey could make a career for himself as an actor, and did not change his mind until Spacey became well-known.14 Some of Spacey's early roles include a widowed, eccentric millionaire on L.A. Law, the television miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988), opposite Lemmon, and the comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989). He earned a fan base after playing the criminally insane arms dealer Mel Profitt on the television series Wiseguy. He quickly developed a reputation as a character actor, and was cast in bigger roles, including the malevolent office manager in the ensemble film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), one-half of a bickering Connecticut couple in the dark comedy film The Ref (1994), and a malicious Hollywood studio boss in the satire Swimming with Sharks (1995), gaining him positive notices by critics. His performance as the enigmatic criminal Verbal Kint in Bryan Singer's 1995 neo-noir film The Usual Suspects won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.19 Spacey appeared in the 1995 thriller film Seven, making a sudden entrance late in the film as the serial killer John Doe after going unmentioned in the film's advertisements and opening credits. His work in Seven, The Usual Suspectsand Outbreak earned him Best Supporting Actor honors at the 1995 Society of Texas Film Critics Awards.2021 Spacey played an egomaniacal district attorney in A Time to Kill(1996), and founded Trigger Street Productionsin 1997, with the purpose of producing and developing entertainment across various media. He made his directorial debut with the film Albino Alligator (1996). The film was a box office bomb, grossing $339,379 with a budget of $6 million, but critics praised Spacey's direction. He also voiced Hopper in the Disney/Pixar film A Bug's Life (1998).16 Throughout his career, he has been well-known for playing villains; he remarked in 2013: "I think people just like me evil for some reason. They want me to be a son of a bitch."22 2000–2010 Spacey won an Academy Award for Best Actorfor his role as a depressed suburban father who re-evaluates his life in 1999's American Beauty;19link the same year, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Spacey won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and earned another Tony nomination in 1999 for The Iceman Cometh. Spacey played a physically and emotionally scarred grade school teacher in Pay It Forward(2000), a patient in a mental institution who may or may not be an alien in K-Pax (2001), and singer Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea (2004). The latter was a lifelong dream project for Spacey, who took on co-writing, directing, co-producing and starring duties in the biography/musical about Darin's life, career and relationship with actress Sandra Dee. Facing little interest for backing in the United States, Spacey went to the United Kingdom and Germany for funding. Almost all of the film was made in Berlin.17 Spacey provided his own vocals on the Beyond the Sea soundtrack and appeared in several tribute concerts around the time of the film's release. He received mostly positive reviews for his singing, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. However, reviewers criticized the age disparity between Spacey and Darin, noting that Spacey was too old to convincingly portray Darin, particularly during the early stages of the singer's life depicted in the film.23 Spacey hosted Saturday Night Live twice: first in 1997 with musical guest Beck and special guests Michael Palin and John Cleese from Monty Python's Flying Circus and again in May 2006 with musical guest Nelly Furtado. In 2006, Spacey played Lex Luthor in the Bryan Singersuperhero film Superman Returns. He was to return for its 2009 sequel, but the series was instead rebooted with 2013 film Man of Steel.24 Spacey also appeared in Edison, which received a direct-to-video release in 2006. In 2008, he played an MIT lecturer in the film 21. The film is based on Ben Mezrich's best seller Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, a story of student MIT card-counters who used mathematical probability to aid them in card games such as blackjack. In early 2010, Spacey went to China to star in writer-director Dayyan Eng's black comedy film Inseparable, becoming the first Hollywood actor to star in a fully Chinese-funded film.25 In September 2006, Spacey said that he intended to take up British citizenship when it is offered to him.26 When asked about the UK's referendum on whether or not to leave the European Union in 2016, Spacey replied "I appreciate you asking me the question, but I am not a British citizen, I am a resident of Great Britain. And I have never in my 12 years ever gotten involved in politics in Great Britain. I think it's inappropriate for me as a, really as a guest, in Great Britain, so I'll leave that to the British people."27 On June 16, 2016, Spacey was awarded an honorary knighthood for his services to theatre. The honor, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, was given at Clarence House by Prince Charles. While Spacey will be permitted to add the post-nominal letters, KBE, to his name, as a non-British citizen the award is honorary and he will not be able to style himself as "Sir Kevin".28 Spacey had previously been awarded the lesser rank of honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to drama in 2010.29 Spacey is well known in Hollywood for his impressions. When he appeared on Inside the Actors Studio, he imitated (at host James Lipton's request) James Stewart, Johnny Carson, Katharine Hepburn, Clint Eastwood, John Gielgud, Marlon Brando, Christopher Walken, Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon.19 As a young actor in New York City, he used his skill to pretend to be Carson's son to obtain free theater tickets and enter Studio 54.30 Capitol/EMI's album Forever Cool (2007) features two duets with Spacey and an earlier recording of Dean Martin: "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" and "King of the Road". In December 2007, Spacey cohosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert along with Uma Thurman.31 2011–2018 Spacey is a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.32 He also sits on the board of directors of the Motion Picture and Television Fund.33 On March 18, 2011, it was announced that Spacey was cast as Frank Underwood in the Netflix series House of Cards.34 He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2013, becoming the first lead actor to be Primetime Emmy nominated from a web television series.35 He went on to win the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Seriesat the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards for his season 2 performance.3637 In July 2011, Spacey co-starred in the black comedy film Horrible Bosses, which grossed over $209.6 million at the box office.38 He executive produced the biographical survival thriller film Captain Phillips in 2013, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.3940 Spacey portrayed founder and president of the private military corporation Atlas Corporation, Jonathan Irons, in the 2014 video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare through motion capture.41 Spacey starred as President Richard Nixon in the comedy-drama Elvis & Nixon (2016). The film is based on the meeting that took place between Nixon and singer Elvis Presley (Michael Shannon) in December 1970 wherein Presley requested Nixon swear him in as an undercover agent in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.42 He next starred in the comedy film Nine Lives, as a man trapped in the body of a cat.43 The film was released on August 5, 2016.44 In March 2017, it was announced that Spacey would portray J. Paul Getty in Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World.45 He shot his role in the film in 10 days over the summer of 2017. However, due to the sexual assault allegations against Spacey, the company announced on November 8, 2017 that all of his footage would be excised, and Christopher Plummer would replace Spacey as Getty in re-shoots.4647 In spite of the very tight schedule, TriStar Pictures completed the new version of the film in time for a December 25 release.4849 Spacey appeared in the film Billionaire Boys Club, which had a limited release on August 17, 2018.5051 Vertical Entertainment stated that they would be taking no action to remove Spacey from the film, as it had been completed in late 2016, prior to the allegations made in October 2017. Roles 615B74D1-18C1-4148-9EFB-187F7E3163FD.jpeg|Dwayne Hanson Rocket Gibraltar 4305ECD8-5BC6-429C-ABE0-B17F2F119B39.jpeg|Kirgo in See No Evil, Hear No Evil 56C9C98E-BE36-499B-B19F-B4933050B16B.jpeg|Micky Rosa in 21 F9DA43A1-5C08-40E4-8EF0-E7053D4827FF.jpeg|GERTY in Moon 2D955085-0F42-48AF-9DA3-0FC69FBA8167.jpeg|Doc in Baby Driver Category:People Category:Males Category:Actors Category:Directors Category:Producers Category:American Actors Category:Americans Category:Living people Category:1950s births Category:Adults Category:Humans Category:1959 births